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UPS “Mail Innovations” – What the?…
By JLP | January 31, 2007
Lately I have noticed that some of the stuff I order online that was normally shipped with UPS is now being shipped via “UPS Mail Innovations.” I don’t see anything “innovative” about this program:
So, UPS picks up the package from the merchant and then hands it off to USPS for delivery. Wow! That is innovative.
My complaint: it takes longer to get my orders.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 51 Comments »
January 31st, 2007 at 10:53 am
But the reason I like UPS is that they’re NOT USPS! That’d be like if I booted up a Linux operating system and saw the Windows logo.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:16 am
Exactly.
Obviously this is a cost-cutting measure. I can’t think of any other reason to create such an “innovation.” Of course, I’m not a logistics expert.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:43 am
Sounds just like the DHL@Home service. I think, in addition to being a cost cutting measure, it’s also a way to get to potential customers that want their shipment to go to a P.O. Box.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I second mallfellow, and have had a similar experience with DHL. It’s supposed to work like this: UPS picks up the package, and delivers it to your regional Mail Distribution Center, if necessary, they deliver it to your local post office, who in turn drops it off at your house, or P.O. Box.
It’s supposed to cut down on transit and cost since USPS First class takes longer than UPS ground service from coast to coast.
January 31st, 2007 at 4:15 pm
one step forward…two steps back!
February 1st, 2007 at 9:31 am
personally, I prefer this because I hate UPS. They have terrible service and they won’t deliver to apartment buildings in my area without a signature. Not many people are home between 10-2, and since that is the only option that they have for most people, it’s useless.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Living in a Small town UPS delivers! USPS takes there time and puts in wrong Box somtimes I’m not shure if I will be Ordering from J&R.com anymore if they put there trust in USPS to deliver to me on time. I think its another Home-Land Security thing any-way.Thanks Big Brother for slowing things down again. Mail Innovations suck!
November 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Mail Innovations Dont Give Tracking Numbers out to the company you order from
November 14th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
As far as I am concerned, UPS Mail Innovation is a fraud. Check this out…go to http://www.ups-mi.net/packageID/ and enter tracking number 230183087382. you will see that it is stuck in Seattle since the 24th of Oct. My package is still not here and when I call UPS, they will not help.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
UPS delivers in 2-3 days standard.
Well they have again… they delivered in 2 days (to the post office) … and now been sitting there for a week.
Ridiculous… order on December 2nd and now sweat out x-mas?
Massive plot to steer you away from the “Free Standard Shipping” I’m guessin’
February 7th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I just got a package today that I’ve been waiting on for.. get this… SIX WEEKS. It’s a tiny little cell phone battery, and took a month and a half to make it halfway across the US??
The company apparently said they had no tracking information, and they refused to send a new item after I was convinced it would never get here (after about a month).
After finally getting the “package”, it was beat to hell, had blue ink scribbled on it, and a few dirty squares where some type of stickers had apparently been forcibly removed.
After entering the tracking number, which I can’t believe the company truly never had, it took 2 weeks to get to my state via UPS, and then it was transferred to USPS which apparently doesn’t track the package at all to the final destination??
I’ve had other packages come via “UPS Mail Innovations”, and here it is folks… expect the package to take twice as long to get there and, in rare instances, expect it to take a month or longer. Sorry, it’s true. There are plenty of people like me complaining to prove it.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
UPS Mail Innovations is GARBAGE. I order most of my games from Merchants at AMAZON.COM, most of them ship with USPS Only. I ordered from a Merchant that used UPS MAIL INNOVATIONS, and it’s taking longer to receive my product than just USPS. Normally using Standard USPS, I’d get my package in around 2-3 days. MAIL INNOVATIONS says my package arrived in IL which is my location, shipped from CA, but its been 3 days now since it shipped.
USPS alone was able to get me my package in 2 to 3 days shipped from California, delivered to Illinois. I’ll never order from a Merchant that uses MAIL INNOVATIONS ( fail ) AGAIN.
If what people are saying about it taking that long to reach the destination, if it happens to me, I will give them hell for them.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
a god men damn
March 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
It’s now been five weeks since the package “shipped.” I called UPS, and they claim that my tracking number does not even exist. Walmart.com tells me that UPS Mail Innovations shipped it, and they were the ones who gave me the tracking number. I called Walmart, and THEY told me that UPS MI is the slowest piece of shit that they use! I don’t see anything great about Innovation…
May 10th, 2008 at 8:15 am
ups mail innovations sucks! could walk to the product location faster, or make it myself faster than they can ship it to me. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
May 17th, 2008 at 4:03 am
…Here’s my situation.
I made one order with CafePress, the first T-shirt turned out SOOOO good, and with UPS, it came in 2 days.
Of course, trial and error, I was thinking:
“Wow. Great product, great shipping.”
So I ordered a couple more T-shirts.
…
Why the hell is this package coming UPS Mail Innovations?
http://www.ups-mi.net/packageID/PackageIDPresearch.asp?strPackageID=9102137053844201446596
It hasn’t budged AT ALL.
The last transaction went so smoothly, I payed the exact same price for shipping as I did the last, why would they cop out?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I just got screwed. I never would of thought that UPS would hand my package off to the USPS. I asked for UPS and I still have not received my packaged. Uugh!
July 10th, 2008 at 2:09 am
[...] [...]
August 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am
UPS Mail Innovations is the worst shipping service that I have ever encountered. I have been waiting for a package to ship less than 200 miles for more than 17 days and the package still hasn’t arrived. The ‘online tracking’ system is never updated with new information, and the customer service is impossible to get through to on the phone (even the ‘Contact Us’ link on the UPS-MI website is broken). I strongly recommend that you never buy anything from an online vendor that ships using UPS Mail Innovations.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I HATE Mail Innovations!! In January I ordered from Bath and Body Works’ website and was told that I’d have my package on February 18 (which ended up being President’s Day). Feb 19 came and went, and finally on the 26th I asked B&BW why my package was still sitting in a Philadelphia USPS facility and they sent me some half-assed automated description of their shipping policy. I never ordered from there again. This time, I ordered a DVD from Overstock.com, selected UPS, and saw that it was shipped out on the same day. But when I went to track it, I saw they were using Mail Innovations and my package arrived at a Philly USPS facility on the 16th of August – the next day – and apparently has been sitting there ever since. I’m only 15 minutes from Philadelphia! This is absolutely unreal. I haven’t been waiting 6 weeks yet or since October like poor Sushil, but I imagine it’s a very real possibility!
September 15th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This is great, I am waiting for a package that I just found out is coming UPS MI, They don’t deliver mail here, I have a PO Box but the company didn’t send it to the PO box.
I ship ebay items all the time with USPS and put the delivery confirmation on them. But I can not get a delivery or tracking number for my package from Ecoquest and they can’t cancel the order and I am paying $10 for shipping thru the mail????????
Flat Rate Priority with the post office is less then $10 and you get a tracking number. Plus my items are less than a pound, if it is coming thru the mail and considering the cost for a box, etc, they are still charging to much. I thought the idea, according to UPS MI site, that this is suppose to save money, I don’t see where I saved any money.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Everything UPS touches turns to s@#$! Whatever the “innovation” is, it can’t be worse than standard UPS, but it can’t be as good as plain old priority mail. USPS consistently delivers cross country packages DAYS ahead of what UPS can do (at least in Tucson, where I live). If both UPS and USPS are taking a cut, it can’t be cheaper than just using one or the other….so.. what’s the advantage?? Priority Mail is cheap, reliable and QUICK. God only knows when I’ll get my UPSMI package…
September 24th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I ship thousands of packages a week internationally for our Ebay account. I use UPS Mail Innovations for my international 1st class mail.
Let me explain why. If you do it yourself, you need to weigh each package and put the appropriate amount of postage on each package. Sounds easy, but when you process hundreds a day it is very, very time consuming. With UPS mail innovations the 1st big advantage is it is much cheaper. They charge by total weight and not each one 2. we just pack all the packages with the label and customs forms (printed from the computer) put it in a box and UPS picks it up for free. It goes to their facilities, they weight it, put a bulk prepaid stamp on it, sort it and then ship it. 3. Because there is a stamp on it w/o the cost, customers dont complain about how much we charged them for shipping. Before we charged $6.99, but the stamp would say $1.50. 4. Our customers get their package 1 – 2 days earliers. Dont ask me why, but they do.
Fedex has something like this but when we used them our shipping got all messed up. We had hundreds of customers calling or emailing us for lost packages. We had one that showed up 60 days later! It was going to Germany, but had a Canada customs stamp on it.
It is great.
Domestically we use Endicia. It is about the same price, we can access our customer info from our database with their software and UPS takes 1 additional day for the package to arrive.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
OMG! UPS Mail Innovations SUCKS!
The transfer from UPS to USPS allows each carrier to blame the other and claim that they don’t know where the package is.
I have been waiting on a package for 2+ weeks now. It got from California to Massachusetts (Boston) in 3 days, but after arriving in Boston and being handed over to USPS it has sat for 8 days somewhere, and USPS tracking has no information after the “Acceptance” scan in Boston 8 days ago! Meanwhile I am waiting for it to reach Cambridge (a suburb which is a 15 minute drive from Boston) and have no idea where in Boston it has been sitting for 8 days!!
September 29th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
OMG! UPS Mail Innovations SUCKS!
The transfer from UPS to USPS allows each carrier to blame the other and claim that they don’t know where the package is.
I have been waiting on a package from an Amazon.com marketplace merchant for 2+ weeks now. It got from California to Massachusetts (Boston) in 3 days, but after arriving in Boston and being handed over to USPS it has sat for 8 days somewhere, and USPS tracking has no information after the “Acceptance” scan in Boston 8 days ago! Meanwhile I am waiting for it to reach Cambridge (a suburb which is a 15 minute drive from Boston) and have no idea where in Boston it has been sitting for 8 days!!
And the Amazon Marketplace merchant (ANTOnline–NEVER BUY FROM THEM!!) refuses to do anything, claiming they “can’t” help me (just send out a damn replacement! and if this one ever arrives I will ship it back to you!) because UPS MI won’t allow them to file a claim until 21 days have passed. HELLO! That’s an issue between them and UPS MI! When I bought the item, I was told that shipping time would be 7-10 days, why should I have to wait 21 days just for them to BEGIN looking for it?!
October 25th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Man this crap is taking SOOOO long…
My birthday was last weds, i ordered a sidekick shell and its been in the city ever since then and i still haven’t gotten this shit
October 26th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I have had the same problems with UPS Mail Innovations! Ordere a shirt from AE.COM and it took over a month to get. Sat “processed” in Memphis for over 3 weeks and then when I was at the day to get a refund from AE (had to wait til the middle of the next month before they would give a refund) it mysteriously showed up on my doorstep. Ordered from them again, told they were only using UPS from now on, got my package in two days and ordered yesterday and what do you know? UPS Mail Innovations AGAIN! Last time I order online. BEWARE and ask before you order who they use to ship! USPS has no record of items when you call to find out what is going on!
October 27th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Wow, this sucks.. I just ordered an xBox 360 microphone from a platinum eBay seller. I only bought from him because of his feedback and everyone else was selling the same product at the same price. They said it will take 1 – 2 weeks at the least. This UPS MI is garbage.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:15 am
i ordered 4 skins for my new laptop and it was “shipped” out on oct 28th…still waiting for it… i had no idea what ups innovation was – i just thought it was regular ups service. so i tried the ups site for tracking – no avail. so i typed in ups innovation in google and found a site to track the package – it’s stuck at a usps facility near me….and i want my package now. i will never select ups innovation now that i know exactly what it is. there is absolutely no need to have ups hand over packages to usps – i dont think it saves money. i think it actually possibly could cost more money because both companies have to be paid for the services of delivering the same exact package – not smart at all.
do not select ups innovation from skinit.com – use the real shipping services you are familiar with. that is a lesson i learned the hard way.
December 5th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I stay away from USPS because their service is awful. If I had known NFL would ship with this crazy..and stupid…way I would have gladly paid the 3 dollars more and had just UPS involved. So this means a trip to the post office. Since apparently the mail folks where I live think a mail box on a post is automaticaly a RFD address. I actually use a home address but apparently it is too far to drive down the driveway !!!I wish they would have said something up front. I could have driven there quicker than the post office will get here.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
We haven’t seen this foolishness before now… but we’ve got a lot of stuff stacking up at USPS in Honolulu. We’re the same… using UPS to AVOID USPS. This is not customer focused. It looks like it’s designed to create work.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I wish companies did not trick you into this crap. If it says UPS shipping (they don’t say “Mail Innovations,” they say UPS) I expect it to start and arrive to me via UPS. Now I have had a package sitting at my local post office since Nov 28th. 24 days. They won’t let me stop in to pick it up either. I go out of my way to pay extra for UPS over USPS and I STILL get stuck with them!
At least I got my shipping reimbursed because of their fraudulent tactics. Now if I ever receive my packages… Christmas may be coming in July this year.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
WOW, It seems like a lot of people have no idea what the shipping worl is like these days and as normal expect everything and pay for nothing. When a merchant ships via UPS Mail they simply offer merchants discounted rates and a comperable sevrice to USPS First Class. I have personally used this service now for 2 years and have had great success but as everyone knows the product isn’t perfect but then again can anyone name a perfect service, especially at this price point?
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I would agree, if I had been offered a choice. I was offered paid shipping, or free shipping directly to the Walmart store. The web site showed a faster delivery for the paid shipping, so I PAID for shipping. They shipped almost two weeks ago, I doubt at this point that my sons present will be under the tree.
BTW I ordered another item in the same shipment that was apparently too big to ship through UPS-MI, and it was here last week via FexEX
FAIL
December 24th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I agree that UPS mail innovations is a complete waste of time. Two weeks ago I placed an order online and was told my package would be received between 12/18 and 12/23. Well, it is now the 24th and still no package. It has been sitting at a USPS facility since 12/19 which happens to be 20 minutes from my house. I sent a package two day priority through USPS three weeks ago and it was received within two days. I also ordered something online on 12/20. It was shipped by regular UPS and I received it today. It seems the problem is once USPS gets it you might as well forget about receiving your package in a timely manner. You cannot track it and USPS gives you absolutely no info on when you can expect your item. Now, for five days a Christmas present has been sitting somewhere 20 minutes from my house and I realize it will have to be a New Years gift (if I am lucky) instead of a Christmas gift. Fortunately for me, the company I made the purchase from gave me a full refund for the product and wished me a Merry Christmas.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Well, I feel somewhat better knowing that I’m not the only sucker for the skinit.com and UPS Mail Innovations fiasco. Should have chosen to pay for the package. Ordered Dec 11th and according to tracking, been sitting at the USPS local office since Dec 20th, still haven’t received it. Post Office tells me that if they had it on Dec 20th, I would have received it the very next day. Still waiting……skinit.com NO HELP, UPS NO HELP, USPS NO HELP!!
February 7th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I think its linked to USPS parcel post. I was told by the Detroit branch that parcel packages wait for available room. If you don’t have room for three weeks, you will not get your package, and this is normal. I do not use parcel post, and I’m not very happy about a package that has been sitting 40 miles from my house for over a week. If I could pick it up I would but thats not an option. Tower Hobbies has great service, but if this is going to be the normal shipping I’ll have to start buying at other places. I know I can pay extra for shipping but I should not have to pay 8 dollars shipping for something that weighs 4 ounces and can be mail First class.
February 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Actually, I have purchased directly from China if need be and received my mail in 5 days. IMO USPS should be outlawed or at the very least they should give you the real shiping details at the post offices website.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Stay the heck away from UPS Mail Innovations.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
WTF??? This is the first time I have ordered from One Step Ahead & be damn I havent received my baby’s teether. Hell she will have allllllll her freakin teeth by the time this damn package arrives. I dont know what type of innovation this is but I dont think the term innovation fits AT ALL. Where is my teether!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????
April 27th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Hi, UPS MI is not the same as the normal UPS package service. For the delivery through UPS MI, the package eventually routes to USPS. UPS MI sort of like a middle man that picks up shipment from the vendor, process it and hand it over to USPS for the final delivery. I am not sure how much you pay for the shipment and handling for the package you ordered online. If the vendor charged you the same for shipping through UPS and UPS MI, chances are the vendor is making quite a fair bit from your shipping and handling. Sometimes the vendor charge you less for the products and it looks like a good deal for you, but they still can get their margin back by shipping at lower cost.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
UPS, DHL, FEDEX: They all have this and route to USPS. I have had to use them all and they DO take longer than one or the other by themselves.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
This is the worst damn service in the world!!!! Ordered a cell phone cover from Skinz on Aug 11. Nothing fancy..just a plain white skin. So there is absolutely no custom work that had to be done. They finally shipped it 5 days later from Cali to Austin..Now mind you it left Cali and made it all the way to Austin in 1 day.. (holy crap) It has now been sitting in Austin for 4 days.. Now I love Austin too but could you hurry up. I can drive from my house to Austin in 5 hours.. What a freaking joke. AVOID UPS INNOVATIONS AT ALL COST.. pay extra if you ever see this as the standard option.. Put’s a whole new meaning to “Snail Mail”.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
This “service” is perhaps the worst “innovation” ever created. It’s made me demand shipment by any carrier other than UPS. Here’s how it works. The shipper provides UPS with the package, which can sit in the UPS warehouse forever. The “confirmation number” you get cannot be tracked by UPS or UPS.com since it’s a USPS number. Your package is guaranteed to sit at least 2 days at UPS while it is “posted” and “manifested” and then they get it “ready” to hand off to the USPS, where it will start its path to you. TRUE STORY – I could WALK to the shipper in 90 minutes. The package took a FULL WEKK to get to me!!!! I tried to pick the darn thing up from the UPS office but they couldn’t find it in their system even though I KNEW which UPS office it was being processed. NEVER, EVER, EVER use UPS Mail Innovations. IT IS MORE ECONOMICAL AND EFFICIENT TO PAY AN 8 YEAR OLD TO TAKE YOUR PACKAGE TO THE USPS STORE AND PAY FOR DELIVERY TO YOUR RECIPIENT.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
What shippers don’t understand is the “last mile” is where the USPS really sucks and is where UPS sucks a bit less, and where FedEx is (comparatively) awesome. I don’t really care who you use on the back end and for the long haul, but I sure like to see anyone but the USPS delivering to my house. The bonehead at UPS who came up with this idea needs to be fired.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Well, well, what do you know? I too was unfortunate enough to have a package shipped with UPSMI and have had a similiar experience to most everyone else.
UPS got it from California to a USPS facility in Maine in 3 days. And that is as far as it got. It has been sitting in a mail facility in my home state for 19 days. Nice. I don’t expect I’ll ever receive this package.
I have probably ordered over a hundred things online over the years and have never waited any more than a week or so for anyhing. This is the first time I have used UPSMI and will DEFINITELY be the last!
October 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Man, what a crappy “service.” I ordered some books from buy.com to be delivered to me in Indiana. UPSMI shipped it from Illinois to Ohio (passing over Indiana), then even further east to Pennsylvania, where it has been sitting for two days. Its been over a week and I don’t figure I’ll see the package for at least another 3-5 days, now that the USPS has it (I think). What the hell UPS?!
October 28th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Get this, had a package shipped UPS, went to the center, took the tracking info, they said they had the package but that it HAD to go to the post office then it could be delivered to me??? I said, “but I am here and need the package” nope, has to go to the post office….what the???????
November 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am
UPS Mail Innovations is the worst shipping service I have ever seen. I have ordered through the mail for years, and have never come across any shipping process that is as slow as this is> Buyer and consumer beware don’t order from companies who use this shipping method it is absolutely Disgraceful to say the least.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:56 am
I think we should all go to Washington go to the Supreme Court Make a jury about People Vs. UPS-MI cause i havent fukin got my windows 7 and im like so excited cause they said they would give it to me by 11/13 how is it cheap to send it to USPS? Its a waist of my fukin time thier service and our life! Sue UPS-MI!!!! im serious delll shouldnt use fukin UPS-MI…
November 14th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I can’t believe they couldn’t find room or time in there to hand it off to fed-ex also. Just looking at the logistical flow chart you should know it is going to be a disaster.